Hi Uni,
I didn't keep track of the number of carbs per day, though my doc said as a rule to stay under 40. I know I couldn't have been under that but he knew what I was eating. It's easier to say what I was eating rather than what I was avoiding. I was eating zucchini, eggs, chicken, raw almonds, pumpkin (high starch, I know, I didn't realize it at the time, I was soooo brain fogged), salads with homemade tahini dressing, Lydia's organic crackers made from raw nuts and veggies and broccoli. Also, lots of soup made with the above veggies along with onion, garlic and bell peppers. And lots of Himalayan crystal salt on everything.
I was not digesting food properly so my doc had me on lots of digestive enzymes, betaine hcl and a rice protein, multi vitamin/mineral/amino formula called Nutriclear by Biotics Research. I know this stuff really saved my butt. I still use it, I love it. I was using 2 scoops twice a day for a very long time and just that powder alone for the day was 42 grams of carbs. Now I just use one scoop a day as a multi.
I, too, was also worried about carbs in the beginning of this diet and I told the doc I had severe hypoglycemia and had to eat every couple of hours or at least sip on juice once in awhile. I had been eating lots of brown rice and beans, even in the middle of the night, that's how bad my hypoglycemia was. I even had to use these protein bars at night called Extreme because I couldn't make it through the night with no carbs. Extreme bars are particularly for hypoglycemia, they have some things in them (like corn starch, bad!) that take a long time to break down and so you prevent hypoglcemia. He put me on another supp that saved by butt called Bio-Glycozyme Forte. It's another supp by the same company, you can see their products at their website same name dot com, and it is specifically geared to help blood glucose regulation. I took a couple of these with every meal and within 2 weeks, my severe hypoglycemia was gone. It has B complex, minerals, trace minerals, antioxidants, glandular support and vitamins. I was taking a bunch of supps but these, along with the ADP (oil of oregano) and Nutriclear, helped the most.
I think what causes LG in the first place is a combination of factors. For me, it was a bad diet almost devoid of green and healthy veggies, use of acid reflux pills like Prilosec which halt production of stomach acid (you need acid to kill the bugs, baddies and pathogens in the food and gut), use of NSAIDs and aspirin for pain (they interfere with proper functioning of the stomach and intestines, I could write a whole article on just that), lots of antibiotics for sinus infections, etc. and too much junky food that is high in sugar and carbs. I also had a severe dairy intolerance though I wasn't aware of it at the time. My sinus issues and persistent hay fever were indicative of a dairy intolerance but I only found that out after it was too late. It caused inflammation throughout my body and that contributes to LG, too. I'm not exactly allergic to dairy, but it makes my immune system hypersensitive and then I become highly sensitive to other allergens like cats and pollen. My real nail in the coffin, though, was hep c. When you already have dysbiosis and you end up with a major infection, you're toast.
As soon as yeast are given the opportunity, like with antibiotics and high sugar diets, they will take over. My doc explained it to me like this - imagine a hotel where all the rooms are full of bad bacteria and yeast. In the hotel, there is only so much room, and if they are in control of all the rooms, you have to kill them off to make room for the good guys. And that is the hard part. It takes a very loooong time and is tedious. I had asked him if it was possible to just take a powerful pathogen killer and then just take handfuls of probiotics to replace the good stuff. And that's when he explained about the hotel. In the intestine, we have a balance of good and bad guys. It is the job of the good guys (like bifido, etc.) to make some vitamins and enzymes and help digest food but one of their most important functions is to maintain the integrity of the gut lining. If they get pushed aside by the bad guys, or killed off by antibiotics or whatever, once the bad guys take over, you're up the creek. Btw, I have seen an article in pubmed about how the flora balance in the intestines is crucial for the bone marrow's production of immune system components. If anyone wants to see it, I can go through my notes and track it down.
First, yeast grows out of control because there aren't enough good guys to keep it in check. Incidentally, in AIDS, yeast is the first thing to get out of control, too. And the yeast in the intestines can get particularly nasty, they will put "roots" down into the gut lining and cause even more inflammation, thereby inflaming the pores which are now large enough to let the contents of the intestines seep through. So you end up with undigested food particles (which cause inflammation throughout the body and stress the liver and kidneys) and bad bacteria and yeasts coursing through the bloodstream. If this goes on for a long time, like probably years in my case, then eventually, the liver can't function properly, you lose methylation (thanks to Rich I know all about this now) and then heavy metals pile up and you end up with CFS. And then you have to spend years on google figuring it all out if you want to feel good again and get out of bed! Arggg!
I think the oil of oregano gets everywhere, because I watched my yeast and bad bacteria levels plunge over time from the CDSA tests. I don't think just taking probiotics, even a good one, will get rid of the bad guys because of the hotel explanation. In the gut lining, that's where all these guys reside, and there is only so much room. Once the bad guys have a foothold, it's extremely difficult to remove them. My doc always said you have to starve them and kill them at the same time.
I think if most people did the CDSA test, they would find a certain degree of dysbiosis. But somehow, they are able to keep it in check so it doesn't get too out of control. If they get a major infection, though, they will have a much harder time of healing it.
So are you hypoglycemic? And what carbs are you eating? Can you just switch to veggie carbs and avoid grains and dairy? Once you kill off a good amount of baddies, you'll find your body working better and better as time goes on. You may start out not-so-low carb but you would probably be able to cut out more and more carbs as you go on killing baddies.
